2010 Marlia Marcia

Last Sunday was the annual marcia podistica in Marlia, a town about 10 minutes away between where we are and Lucca.  It is called Marcia delle Ville or March of the Villas because it passes through many of the classic villas in the nearby hills.  These were once the summer homes of the Lucchese aristocracy and most of them, or at least their gardens, are now open to the public for a fee.  It is nice to be able to see a portion of the gardens without paying plus the views down onto the plain of Lucca are spectacular.

Luckily, it was a nice day.  In fact, I wore shorts in an effort to get some sun on my pale legs.  There were a few others in shorts, mostly serious runners, but it is still a little early for the Italians to be sporting summer attire.

The marcia begins at the site of the weekly Marlia market.  Even at 7 am there were a lot of people around.  It is probably the biggest marcia in the area as it is a three province walk (Lucca, Pisa and Pistoia, I think). 

Here are some of the folks from Partigliano signing in at our table.  As you can see, they are all in uniform.  Like most of the walks there was a Euro 2 subscription fee.  However, the "prizes" we receive at the end are usually worth more than that.  The prizes are donated by local businesses.  At Marlia they included pasta, paper towels and milk.

We arrived quite early at Marlia so we actually went to a nearby bar and had coffee before starting the walk.

We normally do the 5 or 6 km. routes but at Marlia we have done 10 or 12 km.  After walking out of town we were mostly in the hills.  Here we passed by a rather large vineyard.  On the hill beyond you can see the white facade of a villa we later walked right next to.

A little further along the route we were able to look back at the plain below us and the Pisan hills.

This shrine, a combination of a terracotta plaque and fresco, is on the front of a villa we passed.  Next to it was a huge espaliered lemon tree.

This photo shows the countryside looking east.  The hills are like a rumpled comforter with a pattern of olive groves, vineyards, villages, woods and grassy fields.  They flow from the steep mountains to the north down to the flat plain to the south.

I loved this "falling" wall alongside the road.  It looks like it is part of an old building but nothing is left except these few sections of wall.  It drops off steeply on the other side and we could see that the landowner was using it for a spot to burn debris (grass and olive prunings).  These walls have probably been leaning like this for decades but I have to think that someday they will just topple over.

In an earlier photo (of the large vineyard) I pointed out a white plastered villa high on a hill.  This is the opposite side of the building, all stone and ivy.  It was the ristoro (refreshment) stop on our route.  There is a lovely patio with a stone table just to the left of the tents. We then walked around the villa and began our downhill descent.

We were walking with our friend Mary who was a ways ahead of us at this point.  She popped behind a tree to get a picture of us strolling towards her.  So I took a picture of her!

A ways down the hill we happened upon this large gray cat.  He was quite friendly and allowed us to pet him.  As we moved on he sat down in the middle of the road and stared after us.  His expression seemed to me to indicate he was a little put out with us because we quit paying attention to him.

As we approached another villa we were overtaken by this band.  They were accompanied by flag throwers although we missed their full presentation.  It was quite loud as they passed us in the woods.

This is the best villa I took on Sunday.  I am not sure which one it is but we did not actually walk very close to the building.  Our route ran through the woods on the left side of this picture.

As we made our way back into Marlia we came upon another band accompanied by baton twirlers.  There was quite a range of ages in the troupe.  They later came into the market area and gave a lengthy dance performance. 

This coming weekend there are two marcie because Saturday is a holiday (the celebration of Labor Day here) and then there is a regular Sunday walk.  Both are ones we have done before.  Depending on how we are feeling (and the weather) we might do rather short courses.  It is supposed to rain on Sunday morning.  Aaarrgghh!!